The Autumn Garden

It has been a beautiful Autumn with good rain early in March; a superb display of colour with the deciduous foliage from April to late May and long-lasting zinnias, dahlias and salvias, as well as a repeat-flush of roses; and lots of gardening activities, creative pursuits and local exploratory trips!Autumn vies with Spring in my affections. The weather is much more stable, though is tempered by the knowledge of the impending Winter, only to be assuaged by the parade of brilliant deciduous colour, as each tree prepares for its Winter dormancy. The verandah is such a vantage point, the backdrop changing daily.The zinnias and dahlias lasted well into late May, having been touched up by a few early frosts, and Ross has finally put them to bed with a good layer of protective mulch.The roses have taken centre stage again with a wonderful Autumn flush. These photos were all taken this Autumn. I have organised them into their separate beds:

Soho Bed:

Top Row: Left to Right: Just Joey; Fair Bianca; LD Braithwaite and Alnwyck.

Bottom Row: Left to Right: The Childrens’ Rose; Mr Lincoln; Eglantyne and Icegirl.

Moon Bed

Top Row: Left to Right: Golden Celebration; Heritage; Windermere; William Morris

Bottom Row: Left to Right: Lucetta; Jude the Obscure; William Morris; and Troilus

Main Pergola

Top Row: Left to Right: Mme Alfred Carrière and Adam

Bottom Row: Left to Right: an older Adam bloom and Souvenir de la Malmaison

We have been very busy and productive in the garden, gradually crossing jobs off the list! Weeding is a constant in the Soho and Moon Beds, as well as around the feet of all the shrub roses and bulb patches. We have just dug up either side of the shed garden path, so the shed roses are now in garden beds and we planted out many of the potted cuttings, which we took from my sister’s garden at Glenrock. All are doing well!We also made two arches out of old gate weld mesh, one leading into the future chook yard and supporting Cornelia (photo 2) and Sombreuil (photo 3); and the other on the corner of the shed, with Reve d’Or (photo 3) and Alister Stella Grey (photo 4) either side. Ross defined the edges of the vegetable beds with old recycled fence palings and planted out young vegetable seedlings, which he then mulched. We are really enjoying their Winter crop in our salads at lunchtime.From front to back in the photos below: red and green mignonette lettuce; spring onions; broccoli; spinach; cos lettuce and kale. We harvested the pumpkins, which again engulfed the compost heap, zinnia bed and maple tree, as well as the last of the tomatoes, making 3 bottles of green tomato chutney. We also have plenty of late Autumn fruit, now that the bats have gone, though I suspect our citrus is fairly safe anyway! Unfortunately, the figs did not ripen in time, but the Golden Hornet crabapples have lasted well on the tree. All the new citrus are growing madly and bearing fruit – the lime (photo 1) has a particularly fine crop and the lemonade (photo 2) is also bearing well. The cumquats have been an absolute picture, both in full blossom and fruit.We picked 6 Kg of fruit to make into cumquat marmalade and there was still fruit left!The loquat trees were in full bloom for weeks, attracting huge noisy parties of rainbow lorikeets, which then went on to eat the Duranta berries, along with the Crimson Rosellas and huge flocks of King Parrots. Up until early May, we had even larger flocks of screeching Little Corellas in the thousands, gathering in the trees, recently vacated by the bats, then flying off en masse right on dark to their roosting trees to the north, occasionally accompanied by the odd Galah! We have enjoyed flyovers by the local Gang-Gangs (photos below) and Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos. We even had a rare flypass by a Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo, en route to the local mountain forests. Other exciting glimpses included three Dollar Birds (photos 1 and 2) and a Figbird (photo 3), both Summer migrants, normally found further north. Other larger birds in our garden at the moment include very quiet Australian Magpies (photo 6), a pair of courting Australian Ravens (photo 2), a Grey Butcherbird (photo 3), Pied Currawongs (photo 5), Spotted Turtle Doves (photo 4) and our Blackbirds (photo 1), which have been on holiday and have just returned. And our littlies: the Eastern Spinebills (photos 1 and 2), Silvereyes (photo 3) and Double-barred Finches (photo 4). all of whom do a stirling job keeping the bugs in check.We found this delightful Grey Fantail nest in our old camellia tree at the front door.The slightly cooler weather has been wonderful for pursuing creative tasks from cooking to sewing, embroidery and paper crafts. I made my son a delicious carrot cake, using a recipe from https://chefkresorecipes.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/carrot-cake/ for his birthday: and hot cross buns for Easter Friday, using a recipe from https://bitesizebakehouse.com/2017/04/08/cranberry-hot-cross-buns-2/ , with a fun Easter Egg hunt in the garden with friends on the Sunday. My friend Heather, who visited us during the Candelo Arts Festival and is the Melbourne agent for Saori (http://artweaverstudio.com.au/), gave us a Saori weaving workshop and we were thrilled with our woven runners. I gave my friends Rae, Brooklin and Kirsten, a hand embroidery lesson, inspiring Rae’s wonderful exhibit. I was so impressed! I made embroidery rolls for their birthdays, as well as a pair of felt appliqué cushions for my sister’s bed. And another decoupage floral card and a paper owl, assembled from a German kit, which was given to me by my daughter in Berlin.And finally, there were the bouquets from the garden! Masses of colourful zinnias… and bright dahlias; Scented roses;

Simple blue salvias and bold hydrangeas; And wonderful mixtures of colourful blooms! How I love arranging flowers!And finally, we had some wonderful days out, exploring new spots and revisiting old haunts. The Bendethera day in March was rather inclement and while we could not reach our final destination due to the amount of water in the final creek, we did ascertain that our vehicle could manage the 4WD tracks for a future camping trip and despite the rain and constant cloud, it was still a lovely day out. We had much better April weather for our Monaro drive to Delegate, Jindabyne (including the wonderful Wildbrumby Scnapps Distillery in photo 2) and Thredbo (the Kosciuszko chair lift in photo 3) and discovered a wonderful birdwatching and trout fishing venue, Black Lake, near Cathcart, on our way home (photo 5), where we saw six elegant Black-Winged Stilts (photo 6). We introduced friends to Bay Cliff and Greenglades (also see: https://candeloblooms.com/2016/12/13/wonderful-wonboyn/) in late April (see if you can guess the tracks on the beach in photo 7!); and Aragunnu (also see: https://candeloblooms.com/2015/09/11/aragunnu-and-bunga-head/) in May, two of our favourite spots on the coast;as well as revisiting Nunnock Swamp and Alexander’s Hut (also see: https://candeloblooms.com/2016/10/18/south-east-forests-national-park/).And we went canoeing on Back Lake at Merimbula, where we photographed a beautiful Azure Kingfisher, as well as a teenage cygnet and white egrets. We are so lucky to have such easy access to these beautiful unspoilt natural areas! Next week, I am returning to our dreamy roses!

Thank you! It is such a lovely time. Fortunately, our Winters here are less severe than yours, even though we still get frosts! Winter brings its own floral delights: the sweetly scented Winter Honeysuckle and Daphne, the colourful camellias and violets, the beautiful hellebores and the start of the blooming season for Australian native plants- the wattles, banksias and correas! We are so lucky to have such wonderful birdlife!

It certainly is! We feel particularly lucky on the Far South Coast of NSW to have such an unspoilt natural environment! I love the distinct seasons too – the delights of the new season makes up for the passing of the old one! Mind you, I always enjoy the coming of Spring! Enjoy your Summer!!! xxx

Thank you! I too was amazed with the number and variety of Autumn blooms when organizing the photo collages for this post. It’s great seeing the completion of some of those tasks on the garden list, though there is always more to do and never enough time!!! It’s exciting seeing seeing each new development in the garden though! I love those arches!!!

As soon as I am done posting this comment, I need to go buy some lottery tickets. Then, as soon as I win a million dollars, I will be at your door with my bags. Such a splendid home and garden you have. You should be very very proud, all of the hard work and love that you have put into creating this little enchanted kingdom of yours. 😀

Reblogged this on Tanglewood Knots and commented:
If you won the lottery, where would your dream home be? Mine would be right here in Jane’s breathtaking gardens. Please Please read her full post and follow her blog. You won’t be sorry.
Thank you Jane for sharing your beautiful roses and knowledge of roses, plus all of your other glorious flowers, plants and gardens!!

What a wonderful surprise to wake up and find you had shared my blog with your readers! Thank you so much! Little did you realize that it was also a double celebration: my birthday AND the first day of Winter here in Australia!!! xxx

Oh. My. Goodness. I have spent about 20 minutes soaking up all your beautiful photos! I absolutely loving your garden pictures! It certainly is glorious. I’ve been thinking about planting some Bells of Ireland to use as cut flowers next year. Seeing yours, I will definitely put them on my list. It’s interesting seeing your garden is in Autumn whilst we are in Spring! The trees in your area are familiar yet exotic and I love all your wildlife! The birds are beautiful. I’m interested to know what pests you get? Apart from slugs and snails, I am battling bunnies at the moment! Very annoying. All your roses are spectacular. I haven’t planted many, but I may have to go out and buy some new ones! I have a lovely yellow one called Celebration which is stunning. Sorry, I’m rambling because I so enjoyed your post. Thank you for the inspiration! Xxx

Thank you so much! I’m so glad you like the photos, because I do know I take and use a lot in my posts, especially these seasonal ones with three month’s worth, and I do try to be selective, but hope there are not too many for my readers!!! I always wanted to grow Bells of Ireland too- this was my first year and only a few of the seeds struck! I’m really hoping they have self-seeded, as I love their sculptural form and green colour, as well as the little white centres of each bell, which sprout wings! Is your yellow rose a David Austin rose? I love my Golden Celebration. Pests aren’t a huge problem here, because of the birds. In the vegies, we get the usual snails and slugs, while white cabbage moth larvae and bower birds attack the brassicas, orange stink bugs and orchard butterfly caterpillars love the citrus and the 28-spotted ladybirds decimated the leaves of our potato crop last year! Luckily, living right in the heart of Candelo, we don’t have to contend with rabbits, wallabies or wombats in the garden, though the flying foxes ate all our plums, loquats and mulberries this year! Despite all the foraging raids, I still find all our native wildlife, birds and insects fascinating and so beautiful, as you can see in the photos!! Thank you again for your lovely comments! xxx